Steve Greenberg posed a great question in his Twitter feed - is retail actually down, or are we looking in the wrong place? Consider Amazon:

One reason Amazon has survived as an enduring Internet brand is that during downturns it takes market share, and this holiday season looks like it will be no different. Amazon announced its 14th record holiday season, with 72.9 items ordered every second, up from 62.5 last year. What really counts is its revenues and profits, which Amazon does not get into, but the holiday stats do provide some sense of how much shopping occurred on it site.

We did nearly all of our shopping at Amazon this year - the Prime membership made it easy and convenient, and let us procrastinate as well :) I know that lots of retail is suffering right now (particularly big ticket items), but here's the thing - is the current downturn merely accelerating an ongoing trend? Newspapers are in worse trouble than they might have been otherwise, but they are declining regardless. Is the same thing happening in the general retail space?

Now Listening to: I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You by The Alan Parsons Project from: I Robot

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